GSM operators add 1.70 million users in July

Bharti Airtel and Vodafone gain from Uninor and Videocon loss

PTI | August 17, 2012



Led by country's largest mobile player Bharti Airtel, GSM operators added 1.70 million new users (net) in July to take the total subscriber base to 679.05 million.

Operators like Uninor and Videocon, whose licences have been cancelled by the Supreme Court, saw a decline in subscribers base after adding substantial numbers in the last few months.

Bharti Airtel, which has a market share of 27.80 per cent, added 1.50 million users in July to take its total subscriber base to 188.80 million, the Cellular Operators Association of India (COAI) on Thursday said.

Country's third largest operator Vodafone India added 1.20 million customers in July, taking its subscriber base to 154.91 million. The operator had a market share of 22.81 per cent as on July 31, 2012.

Aditya Birla group firm Idea Cellular, with a market share of 17.32 per cent, added 0.45 million new subscribers during the month. It now has subscriber base of 117.62 million.

Uninor lost over one million subscribers to 44.49 million at the end of July 2012, while Videocon lost 0.41 million users, taking its subscriber base to 5.16 million.

These companies along with other new operators such as Etisalat DB, STel and Sistema Shyam Teleservices (SSTL), will have to participate in the upcoming auctions to buy spectrum in order to continue operations as their licences are valid up to September 7.

State-owned telecom firms BSNL and MTNL, however, did not perform well this month. While BSNL did not add a single subscriber during the month, MTNL, which operates in Delhi and Mumbai, lost about 90 thousand customers.

The subscriber base of BSNL and MTNL stood at 94.68 million and 5.22 million, respectively.

COAI data does not contain subscriber numbers from Reliance Communications.

SSTL, which reports its numbers to CDMA body AUSPI, said it has added 0.16 million customers in July taking its total customer base to 16.76 million.

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